Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives, Photography Collection

ABERNETHY, Charles Laban, a Representative from North Carolina; born in Rutherford College, Burke County, N.C., March 18, 1872; attended the public schools, Mount Olive (N.C.) High School, and Rutherford College; moved to Beaufort, Carteret County, N.C., in 1893; founded the Beaufort Herald in 1893; studied law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; was admitted to the bar in 1895 and commenced practice in Beaufort, N.C.; solicitor of the third (later the fifth) judicial circuit for twelve years; member of the State Democratic executive committee 1898-1900; moved to New Bern, N.C., in 1913 and continued the practice of law; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-seventh Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Samuel M. Brinson; reelected to the Sixty-eighth and to the five succeeding Congresses and served from November 7, 1922, to January 3, 1935; unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1934; resumed the practice of law until his retirement in 1938; died in New Bern, N.C., February 23, 1955; interment in Cedar Grove Cemetery.